


Silver Tongue

by uena



Series: The Road to Hell (is Paved With Good Intentions) [12]
Category: The Tomorrow People (2013)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Devilish Eloquence, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2013-11-26
Packaged: 2018-01-02 17:43:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uena/pseuds/uena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jedikiah knows how to talk his way out of anything - especially a confrontation with his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silver Tongue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hope_calaris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hope_calaris/gifts).



“Are you out of your mind?!”

“Well, hello, brother dear. How nice to see you, too.”

Roger looks ready to spit. “Don’t you dare be sarcastic now, Jed, or so help me, I will –“

Jedikiah remains seated, feels rather safe behind the fortress that is his desk. “Hopefully close the door, or else the whole floor will be witness to you murdering me. Oh wait. You can’t. My bad.”

That gets Roger to stop and stare for a moment in silence – then he closes the door to Jedikiah’s office. Rather forcefully.

“Now,” Jedikiah says, as calmly as possible in the face of his brother’s obvious fury, “what’s this about?”

Roger has remained by the door, has only half turned towards Jedikiah, presenting him a shoulder that could only be colder if it was frozen. “I had a talk,” he says in that pretentious way he sometimes has, “with Killian.”

Jedikiah gives his office chair a little spin, faces all that righteous anger head-on. “So?”

“So?” Roger repeats. “You started the program! Against my explicit wishes! You’re testing your blasted drugs on humans!”

“So many words, and almost all of them complete and utter nonsense.” Jedikiah would never admit it, but he sometimes derives great pleasure from driving his brother up the proverbial wall. “Firstly: I did not start the program. The facility you and I both work for did. Secondly: I am not testing anything, and those are not my drugs – that’s all our delightful Doctor Kennex’s area of expertise. And thirdly: Those drugs are not tested on humans.”

Roger finally turns around at that, and the look in his eyes would make Jedikiah uncomfortable if he wasn’t so sure that his brother could never hurt him – that Roger is virtually incapable of hurting _anyone_.

Roger draws a deep breath. “You let Killian be part of the program?”

Jedikiah shrugs his shoulders. “He volunteered. No volunteer was turned away.”

“He’s basically a kid!” Roger grinds out.

“No.” Jedikiah gets up from his chair and walks over to the sidebar, pours himself a glass of Bourbon. “Killian McCrane is a legal adult, and it was his decision to join the Annex Program. Just out of curiosity – what exactly did he say to you, to get your panties all in a twist, Roger?”

“He said,” Roger answers venomously, “that the drugs are causing him intense pain, nausea, and insomnia.”

Jedikiah takes a sip of Bourbon, considers the words and files the insomnia away to talk about with John later, compare notes, so to speak. Then he raises an eyebrow at his brother. “What did he expect? Rainbows and sunshine?”

Roger just stares at him. “You don’t have an ounce of empathy, do you?”

“Not if I can help it, no.”

“You’ve known that kid half his life!”

“And didn’t like him for most of it – he’s a pain in the ass.”

“All his instructors practically fall over themselves with praise.”

“Because he wants them to, Roger. He likes people to think well of him – have them eat out of his pocket. I don’t like the way he just turns on the charm. He’s too calculating if you ask me.”

“Not as easy to manipulate as you would like, you mean?”

“Now, Roger, when have I ever manipulated anyone?”

“Oh, shut up, Jed!” Roger makes an aborted move towards him, rakes his hands through his hair. “Please – please stop this!”

Roger sounds genuinely distressed, and Jedikiah puts his tumbler of Bourbon down. “You know that it’s not my call to make.”

“No, but you have some influence.”

“As do you, Roger.”

“But I’m not involved!”

“Because you didn’t want to be! You didn’t want any responsibility, if I remember correctly – rather stupid of you, don’t you think? You actually could have helped your so-called Tomorrow People for once.”

“Don’t you dare put this on me, this whole sick undertaking was your idea!”

“Sick?” Jedikiah echoes, turns around and glares at his brother. “The idea that you could someday be able to actually have the upper hand in a life-threatening situation, instead of just entertaining the enemy with circus tricks – it’s sick to you, is it?”

“What enemy, Jed? There is no enemy!”

“There’s always an enemy, you fool! With the things you are capable of, you might as well draw a target on your stubborn head, and stick a red flag up your ass!”

They’ve advanced on each other, are standing face to face now, mere feet apart, and there’s still anger in Roger's eyes, a lot of anger, but also understanding. “You’re doing this for me.”

Jedikiah frowns at him, his own anger still burning hot. “No shit, Sherlock.”

Roger attempts a weak grin. “That is the lamest come-back I have ever heard you utter.”

Jedikiah just frowns harder. “Shut up.”

Roger sighs and shakes his head at him, then steps closer, puts a hand on his shoulder. “Will you talk to the Leadership and stop this? For me?”

Jedikiah narrows his eyes at him. “You know I can’t do that.”

The grip Roger has on his shoulder turns somewhat painful at that. “Jed.”

“I will talk to them,” Jedikiah amends. “But there is no stopping this, and you know it. It has to be done. I won’t stand by and see my brother be a victim all his life.”

“I’m not a victim, Jed.”

“Yeah, ok. In the meantime I’ll make sure your brethren can claim the same.”

“The drug hurts them, Jed.”

“Only for a short while.”

“You don’t know that!”

“And what do you know? Have you actually talked to anyone but the most attention-seeking breakout I’ve ever encountered?”

Roger looks a bit taken aback. “I … did not.”

Jedikiah tries valiantly, but in the end he rolls his eyes at his brother. “Typical.”

Roger slaps his shoulder. “Shut up!”

Jedikiah grins at him. He loves to win this kind of encounter. “As much as I enjoy your visits, I actually have to get some work done. You go and have a talk with Kennex, yell at him for a change.”

Roger grimaces. “That man is a robot.”

Jedikiah’s grin widens. “And that’s why you’re my favourite brother: You dislike the same people I do.”

“I’m your only brother, you dimwit.”

“I am a doctor with a certificate to my name, you don’t get to call me that.”

“Ok, fuckwit then.”

“Thank you, much better. Now go annoy the robot, you freak.”

“That would actually hurt, if I didn’t know how jealous you are of my abilities.”

“You can’t teleport without announcing yourself with a gust of wind so strong it blows over trashcans, Roger. You’re useless.”

Roger leaves Jedikiah’s office with the kind of manic cackle he employs to upset the more grave members of the staff, and Jedikiah chuckles to himself and returns to his tumbler of Bourbon.

 

“Apparently, Killian is a whiny little boy who goes running to his uncle Roger when he’s not getting his way – and you, my dear John, really are an appalling combatant. I mean, I read the reports and most of Alicia’s complaints, but what I just witnessed – that was _bad_.”

John’s facial expressions run through a set of hilarious contortions, and what remains is a somewhat uncertain grin. As if he likes to think that Jedikiah is joking, but can’t be sure about it.

They are sitting on the bench in the corner of the training room, and John’s still breathing hard from his latest lesson in being too kind for his own good. His opponent clocked him a nice one. That woman will go far in life. Ruthless. Jedikiah likes that quality in people.

“I get that you don’t want to hurt anyone, John,” Jedikiah goes on while he hands John his towel, studies the purpling bruise forming below John’s left eye. “But I think you’re missing the point of this exercise.”

“Am I?” John retaliates, and his voice is soft, his demeanour submissive, but there’s still an edge to his words. Jedikiah likes that, too, but not in this context.

“Yes, you are. Sooner or later you will have to learn that out there in the real world, people won’t pull their punches. It’s kill or be killed. And I’d quite like for you to live.”

John doesn’t reply at first, hides his face behind his towel, makes a show of drying off the sweat. “What was that about Killian?” he then mumbles through the fabric, and Jedikiah smirks.

“Nothing of importance. It just seems he’s not handling the drugs so well. I’ll talk to him about it.”

That gets John to emerge from the towel rather fast, and he stares at Jedikiah in a way that’s almost … jealous. “Yeah?”

Jedikiah nods. “Yeah. Unless you think I shouldn’t?”

Johns eyes widen, and he’d probably be blushing if he weren’t still in high colour from the training. “No! I mean – yes! Talk to him! You should talk to him. Really. Just …”

“Don’t worry,” Jedikiah says, his voice deliberately low, and he leans forward and into John’s personal space, “I’m not planning on helping him the way I helped you. He needs to find his own Ultra Agent for that.”

John actually smiles at the words, looks at Jedikiah as if he’s something special, and Jedikiah feels a strange pang in his chest. Not exactly painful. Just … weird.

“Come on,” he says. “I think I have a steak for your eye in my fridge.”

John goes still and blinks up at him, and Jedikiah feels the sudden urge to grab and kiss him. He can’t, of course, not here, but he very much wants to. It’s a bit unsettling.

“I can … come home with you?” John asks with a certain kind of wonder in his voice. “Again?”

“I’ve requested to be your handler from now on, and my request was immediately granted,” Jedikiah explains with a patience he doesn’t really feel. “I can take you pretty much wherever I want, whenever I want.” He clears his throat. “Do you? Want to come home with me, I mean?”

John nods like a little boy asked if he wants a puppy for Christmas. “Yes! Of course I do.”

“Of course you do,” Jedikiah repeats under his breath. “Wonderful. Then we should go to your room, grab a few things first, yes? Something you can sleep in? Fresh clothes?”

This time John looks like the puppy a little boy would love to have for Christmas. All exited and golden, filled to the brim with devotion for anyone who’d show him kindness, eager for every pet, every caress.

Jedikiah tries his best to ignore the sudden exuberance, guides John out of the training room without touching him. They make it to the door without drawing any attention, but once they’re outside, they run into Killian. Of course they do. Jedikiah is surprised Killian wasn’t in the training room the whole time – he sure likes smacking people around. At least that’s how Jedikiah interprets his files.

Killian doesn’t pay much attention to them, just walks past and briefly nods at Jedikiah, but then he shoots a look at John out of the corner of his eye, and Jedikiah just knows that this moment was somehow crucial, that Killian noticed _something_.

Jedikiah thinks about that for a few seconds, and then decides he doesn’t care. Killian may be the most promising talent Ultra has right now, but he still doesn’t have any influence on anything. Even if he somehow knew what’s between Jedikiah and John, it’s not like their … relationship’s forbidden.

John is an adult, and so is Jedikiah, and there’s no regulation whatsoever that forbids them sleeping together. As far as Jedikiah’s concerned, Killian, if he were so inclined and desiring to make trouble, can kiss his ass.


End file.
